Historians, theologians,
and sociologists have written extensively about the rise and fall of Shabbatai
Tsevi (Tzvi), the seventeenth-century Turkish Jew whose aesthetic practices and
charismatic charms ultimately seduced hundreds of thousands of followers (to
this day!) in the Orient and Occident, into believing his messianic
proclivities. In the pre-Twitter and pre-Facebook days, his high-profile
rock-star lifestyle and ultimate apostasy by conversion to Islam turned the
Jewish world like a gyroscopic dreidel. While scholars, particularly Gershom
Scholem, have exhaustively studied his life and impact on mainstream Judaism,
there is ample new digging to do into the past to explore the role of women,
especially in Jewish spiritual life of the time. What better subject than the
first (but not only) Mrs. Sabbatai Tsevi, aka Sarah “The Ashkenazi”?

Feminist studies posture
that a woman is not usually behind ever successful man, but is more often in front
or to his side, so we must at least appreciate Alexander Van der Haven’s
scholarly gesture in focusing the premise of this monograph. Yet, we are hungry
for the “mundane” facts about how she spent her days, who were her female
acquaintances, what is it like to be the wife of the messiah, etc. In this
case, the book will be disappointing. Perhaps Ada Rapoport-Albert’s Women
and the Messianic Heresy of Sabbatai Zevi, 1666-1816 (Littman Library of
Jewish Civilization. 2011, UK) will be a better option; it is definitely
longer.

These were very fiery
times, due in no small part to the pogroms and other massacres that befell the
Jews of Europe. The book, however, also hints at alternative lifestyles,
similar to free-love movements and predatory spiritual cults of the 1960s in
the USA. There was no lack of people, particularly Jews and Moslems, and
especially women, who were seeking and experiencing religious ecstasy from the
Occident to the Orient. Disappointingly, however, this book seems more of a Kinsey
Report
about the impact of sexual behavior and reputation on the development of
personal and social identity during this period.

Alas, if you want a
juicy, chutzpah-dicke narrative – such found in every episode of the “The Real
Housewives of ... Wherever” TV show, you are definitely out of luck. Today’s
Hollywood media content is all character driven, and we certainly have the
basics for a deep franchise, but we are left to our imaginations about the
color of the bed silks or the wafting fragrances of the boudoir.

If there was ever a
marriage “made in heaven”, theirs was it. By all accounts, (mostly he-ar say vs
her-say) Sarah claimed to have been destined to marry the messiah, and about a
year after their betrothal, March 13, 1664, Shabbatai declared himself as such,
satisfying an urge from his own visions. In fact, what we are told as fact
about Sarah, however, generally (no little black book) is that she had a wild,
promiscuous life before she met Shabbatai. While they wed in the presence of a
rabbi and witnesses, the relationship was never consummated with a sexual
relationship. It might be inferred that Sarah agreed to this arrangement. It
would be great if someone found letters or notes, perhaps like “My Man”, a piece by Paul
Rudnick in The New Yorker, October 8, 2012, posing as a first
person (anonymous was a woman) account by Mrs. Melissa Christ, Jesus’ "wife".

If this were Hollywood
production, enter the Best Supporting Male Actor: Nathan, another “”Ashkenazi”,
a king-maker type who proclaimed himself Elijah, herald of the messiah. Nathan
not only wrangled Sarah’s confidence, but he began to manage and enrich
Shabbatai’s messianic brand.

Perhaps the devil was
and is still in the details when it comes to high-profile personalities. By all
accounts, the Shabbatian movement did rock the Jewish world. It is no wonder
that, despite the current proclamations and denials that the seventh
Chabad-Lubavitcher Rebbe was THE one we have been waiting for since Tsevi,
everyone is being cautiously optimistic. (And we must remember that it was
Chaya Mushka Schneerson, his wife, who carried the bloodline.)

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OBSERVER

Lauren Deutsch is the executive producer / director of Pacific Rim Arts (www.pacificrimarts.org), a multi-cultural / multi-discipline initiative through which to explore and promote traditional cultures in contemporary life. She is a contributing editor of Kyoto Journal and writes for numerous other scholarly and cultural print and online publications, as well as public radio and television productions. A student since 1985 of Sosei Matsumoto, sensei, Lauren was initiated as “Sochi” (her professional name) in 1997 by Sen Soshitsu, Hounsai, the XVth Grand Master of the Urasenke School of Tea in Kyoto, and licensed to be an instructor. Lauren can be reached at mailto:sochideutsch@gmail.com.